What better way to find out just how much of a difference the improvements have made than with a road trip? We requested an Chevrolet Silverado LT 4WD Crew Cab with the Z71 off-road package, for a nearly 1400-mile journey to Northern California and the Sierra Nevadas and back.

The once bulletproof full-size pickup-truck segment is looking much more vulnerable than it did when Toyota decided to invest well over one billion dollars in a new San Antonio truck plant. Ford recently bet the farm on redesigning and improving its number-one-selling vehicle of all time.